A Balanced Approach to Wellness

The inability to fall asleep and stay asleep affects animals, not just humans. Environmental and health factors contribute to sleep troubles for the sufferers of insomnia.

For people, insomnia has existed throughout history. It is not new, but the causes of insomnia have changed so that the incidents of it have become sources of pride rather than conditions to solve. Pride is the certainty that is heard when some people speak or write about their troubled relationship with sleep. These people view their lack of sleep as a confirmation to their overtaxed way of life.

Many enticements contribute to insomnia: screen addiction (social media, entertainment, porn), television shows, social pressure, medications that affect sleep, tasty caffeinated foods and drinks, deadlines for work or projects, nighttime jobs, overscheduling, events being followed in other time zones, and disdain for time spent sleeping.

The enticements lower the desire to sleep. They entice and dampen communications with the body so that the signals to sleep can be ignored or missed. Insomnia created from ranking activity above sleep, when sleep is the “activity” needed, is hard to cure because of faulty understanding of sleep.

Inactivity is another cause of insomnia. The body is designed for movement—and plenty of it! Lack of movement, when awake, jolts the body while trying to sleep. When the body is not tired but is instructed to sleep, restlessness or wide-awakeness encroaches upon sleep’s sacred territory.

Problems requiring solutions or thoughts that endlessly cycle bring on sleeplessness that is worsened when the thoughts are fearful. Fearful thoughts do not worsen insomnia, but they do increase its harmful effects.

Sleep is life in action! Full action, just like when awake, except that the action is directed towards growth, uninterrupted flows, and repair. The action that takes place during sleep can occur when awake-activities are taking place, but they interrupt each other’s processes. The body must repair itself. The body must grow replacement cells. They body must move life-sustaining nutriment and by-products to their places. Interruption to these processes disturbs balance.

Insomnia deserves healing. The healing required includes removing enticements that interfere with sleep, resisting the urge to glorify issues with sleep, dealing with problems and worries, and learning about the magnificence of sleep—because sleep is truly magnificent!